Saturday, August 30, 2008

Saturday On SPEED: Fontana Practice And Qualifying

Fans of programs like NASCAR Live and Victory Lane get a treat this Saturday as veteran host John Roberts goes "upstairs" and into the broadcast booth to call the action during Nationwide Series Qualifying at 5:30PM ET.

Roberts will be joined by Jeff Hammond and Larry McReynolds for analysis. Down on pit road and handling the interviews will be Randy Pemberton and Hermie Sadler. This session should run a little bit over an hour.

Next up on SPEED will be Sprint Cup Series practice at 7PM. Steve Byrnes will join Hammond and McReynolds while down in the garage area it will be Wendy Venturini joining Pemberton.

The same broadcast team will stay right where they are for Happy Hour that starts at 8PM NASCAR Time. That is the polite way of saying things sometimes get a little backed-up due to circumstances. NASCAR builds in a little extra time, so this broadcast will actually end at 9:30PM.

Controversial journalist Mike Mulhern makes a rare appearance on Tradin' Paint at 9:30PM. This TV series is trying to get back on track after a tough stretch and Mulhern is just the right guy to do it. If the Producer selects topics that interest the race fans and offer a diversity of opinion, this episode should be fun.

ESPN starts coverage at 9:45PM and there will be a new post for the NASCAR Countdown show and the Nationwide Series race. Remember, live college football precedes these telecasts on ESPN2 so keep up to the minute with The Daly Planet on this issue.

This post will serve to host your comments about the Saturday coverage of NASCAR from Fontana, CA on SPEED. To add your TV-related comment, just click on the COMMENTS button below and follow the easy instructions. The rules for posting are located on the right side of the main page. Thanks again for stopping by The Daly Planet.

I wish they would've talked about Kevin Hamlin (the racecar driver from Snohomish, WA) ... He was right after Bowyer, but they skipped him ... I guess they just couldn't pronounce "Snohomish" and didn't want to embarrass themselves ...

They're too busy kissing up to the JGR cars & drivers ...

Ugh!!!!

I thought the toyotas were supposed to be slower at the BIG tracks like MIS & Fontana ... What the heck happened ??

I didn't get the chance to post yesterday, so wanted to say I had a great day watching the guys on SPEED. Solid, fun and interesting all day. Bob Dillner needs a little more practice in the booth, but not too bad. Randy did a fantastic job on pit road and I like his attitude towards asking less than brillent questions but still came up with good 'nuggets'.

They really set up the race for me, and spent a good amount of time discussing and educating me on some of the unsponsored teams and drivers; the soul of NASCAR GO Morgan. I think Randy must have borrowed his roller skates yesterday he was so all over pit road. So if ESPN fails to show me the race tomorrow, I am much more primed to manage alone and wait for VL and TWIN to fill in the blanks.

Anonymous said... I wish they would've talked about Kevin Hamlin (the racecar driver from Snohomish, WA) ... He was right after Bowyer, but they skipped him ... I guess they just couldn't pronounce "Snohomish" and didn't want to embarrass themselves ...

I wish they would've talked about Kevin Hamlin (the racecar driver from Snohomish, WA) ... He was right after Bowyer, but they skipped him ... I guess they just couldn't pronounce "Snohomish" and didn't want to embarrass themselves ...

Randy Pemberton did a fine job on pit road and so did Hermie. Randy asks just the right questions and enjoy Dillner in the booth. So far today, it's a good day. The California race is so late for us here but at least we don't have to evacuate. Hoping and praying for Louisiana residents with Gustav on the way.

I made it a point to watch a show that wasn't actual cars-on-track for a change. I have followed Mulhern off & on for some years now, and wanted to see him. I was surprised at his "machine gun" pace and style of speech. I was disappointed that he sounded like one of the shouting heads over on ESPN.

However, what really caught my attention was the Army sponsorship remark. It made me angry that Carpentier could be getting the boot for a reason like that.

I wasn't aware of the NHRA Army sponsorship of a Brazilian driven car. As counter intuitive as this sounds, that "nugget" makes me believe even more that Mulhern may be right. It certainly would, in my opinion, fit the management style of Evernham/GEM,(yeah I know that Evernham's name is part of the GEM acronym, but that delineates the operation before & after the buyout; which is to say no difference), in how he/they treat their employees. I can easily believe that they made a pre-emptive move in order to try to get the sponsorship, rather than being told to do so by the sponsor.

anon 9:51 and rich...I really like Patrick, but if this is true, to be honest I can see where the Army is coming from. NASCAR is primarily *American* (we're talking 'perception' here), and if I was the Army (just trying to be objective) I do think I would want an 'all-American' face on my product. It's a *recruitment* tool, and I just think that's what you'd want. Ray's learned to be a business man. I don't love the guy, but you gotta do what you gotta do, otherwise, you've become Morgan McClure or the Wood Bros...sad as I am to say that...

Actually Mulhern was a little bit calmer on Paint than when he's on PRN's weekly reporter show. His Sunday commentary, coincidentally, is about Petty Enterprises. I found his remark about the cost of hotel rooms interesting since he has missed several races this year- I presume due to increased travel costs and reduced newspaper circulation and ad sales. I did not expect him to be at Fontana since he was not at the Glen or, I believe, Long Pond.